The present invention relates to a large-capacity storage apparatus for use in an information processing apparatus and particularly to a disk storage apparatus employing a hard disk as a disk-like recording medium both sides of which data can be read from and/or written in.
A disk storage apparatus 101 having an arrangement shown in FIGS. 32, 33 has been proposed as a high-speed large-capacity disk apparatus such as, typically, a removable hard disk apparatus related to the present invention. A disk cartridge 120 having an arrangement shown in FIG. 34 has been proposed as a disk cartridge accommodating a hard disk as a recording medium for use in the above disk storage apparatus 101.
As shown in FIG. 32, the disk storage apparatus 101 is formed of, as main mechanical elements, a disk rotating mechanism 104 equipped in a disk cartridge loading portion 103 having an insertion slot 103a at a front surface of a front half portion side of a main chassis 102 and a reading/writing head mechanism 105 disposed at a rear half portion side of the main chassis 102.
The disk rotating mechanism 104 is mounted on a subchassis (not shown) disposed below the main chassis 102 so as to be lifted up and down thereby and so that a spindle motor 108 having a chucking magnet 107 should be projected by a predetermined height or lower from an opening 106 formed through a bottom surface center portion of the disk cartridge loading portion 103.
In order to downsize the apparatus 101, the reading/writing head mechanism 105 is positioned on the rear half portion side of the main chassis 102 and in the vicinity of the disk cartridge loading portion 103. The reading writing head mechanism 105 has a reading/writing head (hereinafter referred to as an R/W head) H attached through a suspension 112 formed of a plate spring at a tip end of an actuator arm 111 pivotally supported by a shaft 109 and rotated by an actuator 110.
The actuator 110 of the reading/writing mechanism 105 is formed of a movable coil 110a fitted to an rear end portion of the actuator arm 111 and a flat magnet 110b fixed on the main chassis 102 side so as to correspond to the movable coil 110a. The R/W heads H are a pair of upper and lower heads. Therefore, a pair of upper and lower suspensions 112a, 112b are employed as the suspension 112 fitted to the tip end portion of the actuator arm 111. Both of the suspensions 112a, 112b are fitted to the actuator arm 111 at an interval therebetween so as to be projectingly extended in the extended center line of the actuator arm 111. The R/W heads H are bonded to sliders fitted to inner surface sides of tip ends of both suspensions 112a, 112b in the direction perpendicularly to center lines of the suspensions 112a, 112b, being opposed to each other in the vertical direction. Moreover, load bars 113 are fixed on outer surface sides of the tip ends of the both suspensions 112a, 112b so as to be projected in the direction extended from the tip ends.
The reading/writing head mechanism 105 is located in a state that the tip ends of the actuator arm 111 including the suspensions 112a, 112b are opposed to the inside of the disk cartridge loading portion 103, and is inserted into a disk cartridge 120 to be loaded. Therefore, in order to prevent the tip end of the actuator arm 111 from disturbing a hard disk housed in the disk cartridge 120, the tip end portion of the actuator arm 111 is forked, i.e., branched to upper and lower piece portions. The suspensions 112a, 112b are respectively attached to the upper and lower piece portions.
A ramp 114 which is a slide-shaped block serving as a guide for the R/W heads H is fixed on the rear half portion side of the main chassis 102 in the vicinity of the disk cartridge loading portion 103 and ahead of the actuator arm 111 so as to be opposed to an inside of the disk cartridge loading portion 103. This ramp 114 is also inserted into the disk cartridge 120 to be loaded and hence is forked, i.e., concave-shaped in order to be prevented from disturbing the hard disk. The load bars 113 at the tip ends of the suspensions 112a, 112b are brought in slidable contact with upper and lower surfaces of the ramp 114, respectively, thereby the suspensions 112a, 112b, i.e., the R/W heads H being held at an interval.
Moreover, a printed circuit board 115 mounted with a control circuit for controlling the actuator 110, a reading/writing amplifier for the R/W heads and so on is disposed on the rear half portion of the main chassis 102, being connected through a flexible wiring plate 116 to the actuator arm 111 side.
As shown in FIGS. 33, 34, the disk cartridge 120 is formed of rectangle-shaped upper and lower halves 121, 122 and a magnetic disk on both sides of which data can be read from and written in, i.e., a hard disk 124 rotatably accommodated in a disk accommodating portion 123 between the upper and lower halves 121, 122. A hub 125 made of a ferromagnetic material is fitted to a center portion of the hard disk 124 and opposed to a center aperture 126 formed through the lower half 122.
An opening portion 127 into which the tip end portion of the actuator arm 111 is inserted together with the suspensions 112a, 112b attached with the R/W heads H is formed at both of the upper and lower halves 121, 122 on the front surface side of the disk cartridge 120. A shutter 128 for opening and closing the opening portion 127 is attached to the opening portion 127. The shutter 128 is pivotally and rotatably supported by a shaft 129 of the upper half 121. When the disk cartridge 120 is not in use, the shutter 128 closes the opening portion 127 to prevent dusts, fingers and so on from being inserted into the disk cartridge 120. When the disk cartridge 120 is loaded into the disk storage apparatus 101, the shutter 128 is automatically opened.
As shown in FIG. 32, when the disk cartridge 120 is loaded onto the disk storage apparatus 101, the disk cartridge 120 is horizontally inserted into the disk cartridge loading portion 103 disposed on the front half portion side of the main chassis 102 through the front surface insertion slot 103a with its opening 127 being opposed to the front surface insertion slot 103a. Initially, the shutter 128 is automatically opened by a shutter opening and closing mechanism (not shown), and hence the opening portion 127 is exposed to the outside. When the disk cartridge 120 is inserted and moved to a predetermined position, as shown in FIG. 33, a part of the actuator arm 111 from its tip end portion to both suspensions 112a, 112b and the slide-shaped portion of the ramp 114 are moved through the opening portion 127 into the disk cartridge 120, a part of an outer periphery portion of the hard disk 124 is located in the concave portion of the ramp 114. In this state, since load bars 113 are in contact with a high position portion of the ramp 114, the suspensions 112a, 112b are held across an extended interval, thereby the R/W heads H being located across an interval which is larger than a thickness of the hard disk 124.
In this state, the spindle motor 108 of the disk rotating mechanism 104 is lifted up and projected from the opening 106 at the bottom-surface center portion of the disk cartridge loading portion 103 by a predetermined height. The spindle motor 108 attracts the hub 125 of the hard disk 124 through the center aperture 126 of the lower half 122 by an attraction magnetic force of a chucking magnet 107. Then, the spindle motor 108 and the hard disk 124 are moved integrally, i.e., the hard disk 124 is chucked by the spindle motor 108.
Then, when the spindle motor 108 is rotated and its rotation speed becomes a certain angular velocity, the actuator arm 111 is rotated in the direction toward the inside of the disk cartridge 120, i.e., in the direction toward the hard disk 124 by the actuator 110, and then the load bars 113 of both suspensions 112a, 112b are slid down on the ramp 114 from its higher position side to its lower position side. Consequently, the R/W heads H are gradually brought into their landing states on the hard disk 124. In this landing operation, when the hard disk 124 is rotated, an aerodynamic effect produced between the hard disk 124 and a slider supporting the R/W heads H, i.e., a so-called air film produced between the surface of the rotating hard disk 124 and the slider floats the slider over the hard disk 124 across an interval of several tens of nm, and hence prevents the R/W heads H and the hard disk 124 from being in contact with each other.
In this state, the actuator arm 111 is rotated to position the R/W heads H to a predetermined track, and then information is read out from and/or written in the hard disk 124.
When the disk cartridge 120 is inserted into the disk cartridge loading portion 103 of the disk storage apparatus having the above arrangement, the tip end portion of the actuator 110 of the reading/writing head mechanism 105 enters the disk cartridge 120 through the opening portion 127. As a result, when the actuator 110 is retracted to the outside of the disk cartridge 120, the actuator is located outside of a range in which it cannot be completely retracted by rotation of a voice coil motor, and hence a positional relationship between the loaded disk cartridge 120 and the actuator 110 sometimes prevents the actuator 110 from being retracted to the outside of the disk cartridge 120.
Since it is necessary to lift up and down the spindle motor 108 when the disk cartridge 120 is inserted into the above disk storage apparatus, it is difficult to realize a spindle motor supporting mechanism which can satisfy safety, reliability and durability all of which are required therefor. Moreover, since it is necessary to secure a stroke required when the spindle motor is lifted up and down, it is difficult to reduce the height of the apparatus and to downsize the apparatus, and it is also difficult to reduce the height of the disk cartridge 120.
In view of such aspects, it is an object of the present invention to provide a disk storage apparatus which can completely retract a rotation actuator to an outside of a disk cartridge and can be reliably and stably operated and whose whole thickness can be reduced.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a disk apparatus includes a chassis, a loading means provided on the chassis for detachably loading a disk cartridge in which a disk-like recording medium is rotatably accommodated, a rotating means for rotating the disk-like recording medium in the loaded disk cartridge, a head means for accessing to the rotated disk-like recording medium, a head moving means supported by a rotating and supporting member provided on the chassis and mounted with the head means in the vicinity of its one end portion, and a drive means for rotating the head moving means through the rotating and supporting member to move the head means to a desired position on the disk-like recording medium in the disk cartridge. The drive means inserts the head means into the disk cartridge only when the head means accesses the disk-like recording medium and retracts the head means from the disk cartridge when the head means does not access the medium.
According to a second aspect of the preset invention, an access method of inserting a disk cartridge into a disk apparatus to access a disk-like recording medium in the disk cartridge by a head, includes a loading step of detachably loading a disk cartridge in which a disk-like recording medium is rotatably accommodated, a rotating step of rotating the disk-like recording medium in the loaded disk cartridge, a head moving step of moving a head means by a head moving means supported by a rotating and supporting member provided on a chassis and mounted with the head means in the vicinity of its one end portion, a drive step of rotating the head moving means through a rotating and supporting member to move the head means into the disk cartridge only when the head means accesses the disk-like recording medium, and an access step of permitting the head means to access the rotated disk-like recording medium.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a head retracting method of retracting a head from a disk-like recording medium in a disk cartridge inserted into a disk apparatus, includes a head moving step of rotating a head moving means supported by a rotating member provided on a chassis and mounted with a head means in the vicinity of its end portion to move the head means from an inside of the disk cartridge to an outside thereof, a lock releasing step of releasing the locking of a cartridge holder rotatably provided at its one end portion on the chassis and locked at the other end in the vicinity of the chassis, a rotating step of rotating the cartridge holder in the direction in which the other end portion of the cartridge holder is moved away from the chassis, and a rotation restricting step of restricting rotation of the cartridge holder so that the cartridge holder should not be rotated at an angle exceeding a predetermined angle in the rotation direction in which the cartridge holder is brought away from the chassis.